Mr Clinton remained tight-lipped on the details of his ‘humanitarian’ mission
on his return to Los Angeles and his wife, Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton, said it was a purely private mercy visit.

Journalists Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36, also said they had no
knowledge of a deal as they were tearfully reunited with their families
after months in captivity in North Korea.

But a senior U.S. official conceded that the ex-president did talk to
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il about the ‘positive things that could
flow’ from freeing the two women.

It has also emerged that billionaire businessman Steve Bing, a friend of Clinton's and long-time supporter of the Democratic Party, offered his private jet to fly the journalists home at a cost of around $200,000.

Avjet Corp, the charter company that operates and manages Bing's Boeing
business jet, was alerted on Friday to prepare to fly to North Korea,
said Andrew Bradley, senior vice president of the Burbank, a
California-based company.

'He's a personal friend and supporter of Mr Clinton and when the need
arose, he graciously offered his aircraft to be part of this historic
event,' Bradley said yesterday.

Nicholas Szechenyi, a Northeast Asia expert at the Centre for
Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the biggest
risk was that North Korea would demand a similar high level approach to
the nuclear issue.

‘It could send a very bad signal to the region,’ he added.

President Obama said he was ‘extraordinarily relieved’ at the return of the journalists and thanked Mr Clinton.

But his spokesman Robert Gibbs emphasized that the administration saw the release and nuclear talks as ‘different events.’

The journalists, who worked for a TV station founded by Mr Clinton’s
former Vice President Al Gore, were arrested in March for illegally
crossing into North Korea from China. They were both sentenced to 12
years hard labour in June for committing ‘hostile acts.’

Both women thanked Mr Clinton. ‘We knew instantly in our hearts that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end.

U.S. President Barack Obama voiced the families' sentiments as he
said yesterday that he was 'extraordinarily relieved' at the return of the two
journalists.

And he thanked Mr Clinton for securing their release.

'I
want to thank President Bill Clinton - I had a chance to talk to him -
for the extraordinary humanitarian effort that resulted in the release
of the two journalists,' Mr Obama said.

North Korea's KCNA news agency said that North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il issued a special pardon to the two journalists, of U.S. media
outlet Current TV.

In June, the nation's
top court sentenced Ling, 32, and Lee, 36, to 12 years of hard labour
for sneaking into the country illegally and engaging in 'hostile acts.'

The
journalists were working for Gore's Current TV media venture when North
Korean guards seized them in March near the country's border with China.

The journalists' detention came at a time of heightened tension
between the U.S. and North Korea over that country's nuclear program.
The U.N. Security Council also has imposed sanctions against North
Korea for a May nuclear test.

U.S. officials said North Korea was
not promised any rewards for their release and there was no link to
nuclear non-proliferation talks.

Laura Ling hugs husband Iain Clayton as they are reunited in California yesterday

Clinton's wife, U.S. Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton, told reporters in Nairobi she was happy and
relieved.

She added that there was no connection between the effort to
free the two journalists and the thorny nuclear issue.

'We have
always considered that a totally separate issue from our efforts to
re-engage the North Koreans and have them return to the six-party talks
and work for a commitment for the full, verifiable denuclearization of
the Korean peninsula,' she said.

'The future of our relationships with the North Koreans is really up to them. They have a choice,' she said.

Washington
faces a tricky task of trying to convince North Korea to give up dreams
of becoming a nuclear weapons power without being seen to reward it for
repeated military acts or ignoring the demands of others in the region,
analysts said.

In North Korean media photographs of the meeting, Kim was smiling and
looked in reasonable health after speculation he was seriously ill. Kim
was suspected of suffering a stroke last year.

'Regardless of what the U.S. administration says, the Clinton and Kim
meeting signals the start of direct bargaining... It's a matter of
time when U.S.-North bilateral talks begin,' South Korea's Chosun Ilbo
daily said in an editorial.

Journalist Laura Ling, front left, speaks into a microphone as former president Bill Clinton, back left, looks on with former vice president Al Gord, right, who has his arm around Ling's fellow journalist Euna Lee

See video of the journalists' arrival here

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'It's hard to believe that North Korea released the journalists just
on humanitarian grounds. It probably had something to do with a package
deal with the United States, to resolve the issues of denuclearization
and normalization of ties,' said Tadashi Kimiya, an associate professor
at the University of Tokyo.

The families of the two women,
who had sent letters pleading for the women's release, issued a joint
statement thanking President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton and the U.S. State Department for their work.

'We
especially want to thank President Bill Clinton for taking on such an
arduous mission and Vice President Al Gore for his tireless efforts to
bring Laura and Euna home,' according to the statement posted on a Web
site dedicated to freeing the two journalists.

Ling's father,
Doug, told reporters outside his home in Carmichael that his daughter's
release was one of the best days of his life.

The private jet paid for by billionaire businessman Steve Bing, a friend of Clinton's, which brought the journalists back to the Bob Hope Airport in California yesterday

'It's one of the few times something positive has happened to me, besides having the two girls,' Doug Ling said, referring to Ling and her sister, Lisa, a correspondent for CNN, 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' and 'National Geographic Explorer.'

Doug Ling said he was heading to Southern California to meet his daughter, who he said was scheduled to fly into the Burbank airport, just north of Los Angeles, early Wednesday.

'I'm going to go down there and see my little girl,' Doug Ling said.

Brandon Yip, who is married to Ling's cousin, said the first thing he'll tell Ling when she returns is, 'Don't ever do that again.'